DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Universal Token, Inc. (OTCQB: UTKN) ($UTKN), a publicly traded company developing institutional-grade digital infrastructure for real-world asset tokenization, and The SUSTECH Bank (www.sustech.earth), a global sustainable technology and development finance platform focused on scalable innovation across emerging markets, announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The agreement calls for establishing a strategic alliance to design, deploy, and scale institutional digital asset and settlement infrastructure across Africa, Asia, and selected global corridors.

Strategic Scope of Collaboration

Under the MoU, the parties intend to collaborate across the following areas:

• Co-architecture of institutional digital asset platforms, including tokenized real-world assets, digital gold infrastructure, and settlement-grade instruments designed for governmental, corporate, and ecosystem-level applications.
• Integration of Universa Blockchain infrastructure with The SUSTECH Bank’s institutional and settlement frameworks, supporting the issuance, administration, and lifecycle management of digitally native, asset-backed financial instruments.
• Joint pilot deployments with governments, banks, funds, and infrastructure sponsors across Africa and Asia, prioritizing regulatory alignment, auditability, transparency, and long-term economic utility.
• Development of interoperable operating entities or joint ventures, where appropriate, to enable regional or asset-specific scale-out, combining Universal Token’s expertise in blockchain infrastructure, asset lifecycle tracking, and Proof-of-Reserve (PoR) systems with The SUSTECH Bank’s geographic reach, institutional relationships, and sustainability-aligned project pipeline.
  
  

This collaboration is explicitly focused on institutional, regulated, and asset-anchored use-cases, and does not involve retail trading platforms or speculative digital assets.

Focus on High-Growth Regions

Africa and Asia are identified by the partners as priority regions for the next phase of institutional digital infrastructure development, driven by:

• Significant infrastructure and natural resource development needs.
• Rising demand for transparent, asset-backed, and sustainable financing mechanisms.
• Increasing interest from governments and institutions in regulated digital solutions that support long-term development objectives.
  
  

The alliance reflects a platform-to-platform collaboration, combining Universal Token’s digital infrastructure, blockchain, and asset tokenization capabilities with The SUSTECH Bank’s institutional finance frameworks, market access, settlement architecture, and execution platforms.

“We see real-world asset tokenization as a foundational layer of next-generation financial infrastructure, particularly for emerging economies. Partnering with The SUSTECH Bank enables Universal Token to expand across Africa and Asia while remaining focused on productive, asset-backed use-cases supported by strong governance and regulatory alignment. It can bring us additional audience from these regions as the population there is huge, as is the demand for such services,” states Alexander Borodich, Founder and Chairman, Universal Token, Inc. ($UTKN).

Through this alliance, Universal Token and The SUSTECH Bank plan to engage with governments, industrial partners, banks, funds, and project developers, offering a ready-to-deploy institutional digital infrastructure stack for the issuance, management, settlement, and lifecycle administration of tokenized assets.

“The SUSTECH Bank envisions a future where scalable innovation, institutional finance, and sustainable technology converge to address the world’s most pressing challenges. This collaboration with Universal Token allows us to deploy asset-backed digital infrastructure that can unlock long-term capital for infrastructure, energy, environmental resilience, food security, and health-related initiatives across Africa and Asia,” states Akash Mahendra Bhavsar, Managing Director, The SUSTECH Bank.

About Universal Token, Inc. (OTCQB: UTKM) ($UTKN)

Universal Token, Inc. (OTCQB: UTKN) ($UTKN) is a publicly traded company providing institutional-grade digital infrastructure for the tokenization of real-sector assets, including commodities, infrastructure, and sustainability-linked projects. The company focuses on regulatory-aligned platforms designed to support transparent issuance, asset lifecycle management, Proof-of-Reserve mechanisms, and scalable deployment across multiple jurisdictions - https://universaltoken.com/.

About SUSTECH Earth and The SUSTECH Bank

SUSTECH.Earth is the Global Sustainable and Scalable Technologies and Economic Hubs (SUSTECH) Initiative, launched by SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd. The initiative focuses on creating sustainable, scalable economic corridors powered by science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship, with environmental and social sustainability at the core - https://www.sustech.earth/about.

The SUSTECH Bank, a sustainable technology bank emerging from the SUSTECH ecosystem, works with governments, institutions, and private-sector partners to design and deploy innovative, asset-backed, and impact-driven financial frameworks aligned with global development and sustainability goals - https://www.sustech.earth/sustech-bank.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Except for historical matters contained herein, this press release's statements are forward-looking. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may", "will", "to", "plan", "expect", "believe", "anticipate", "intend", "could", "would", "estimate," or "continue", or the negative other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date hereof. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings with OTC Markets. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Media Contact:
Universal Token, Inc.
George Athanasiadis, CEO
+1 727-692-3348
info@universaltoken.com
www.universaltoken.com